sledding
by not a straight trumpet
Summary: It's a snow day, and Reina takes it upon herself to bring Kumiko to a special place.


**a/n:** i'm very worried about the possibility of a kumiko/itchy shoe endgame so this fic happened

i wrote a lot of it while listening to el captain by idlewild and the soundtrack for the final legend of korra episode, which turns two today

* * *

Kumiko woke up to see the sidewalk below her family's apartment coated in snow, a soft blanket that made everything seem just a bit kinder. She fell asleep a few minutes later.

* * *

Kumiko woke up a second time to hear her mother talking with someone over the phone.

"Yes? . . . Alright, then, thank you for telling me." The phone hung up with a _click,_ and Kumiko nestled deeper in her bed. "That was the school. There's too much snow for it to be cleared safely in time for classes, so it's cancelled today."

"Mmf . . . thanks," Kumiko mumbled.

"Your friend Reina called, too. She said that there was a hill she wanted to go to or something? I can call her back if you-"

"'S fine," Kumiko said, her voice still heavy with sleep. "I'll call her back when I'm awake."

"Alright, then." Kumiko heard the sound of a light switch being clicked off and of someone leaving. "I'll tell you if she calls again."

* * *

Kumiko woke up a third time to hear the doorbell ring. Buried under a wild mishmash of blankets and stuffed animals, she poked her head out from underneath the covers.

"You must be Reina, then." Kumiko froze.

"Yes."

"I'm surprised that you managed to make it here, what with this awful weather. Come on in, I'll get you some hot chocolate or something." Kumiko could hear Reina taking off her shoes, and she could practically imagine the other girl walking into the living room, lightly covered in snow as if someone had dusted her in powdered sugar. "Kumiko's still asleep, I'm afraid . . . that seems to happen a lot while you're here, doesn't it?"

"It does, ma'am."

"Well, she talks about you all the time, so . . ."

"Oh, she does?" Kumiko flung off the covers, shoving open her door with her pajamas still loosely hanging off of her body and still covered in cartoon kittens.

"Reina!" she yelped. "H-hey! I'm awake! Mom? Could you, uh, please . . . go, maybe?" Reina snorted.

"She seems . . . nice." Kumiko buried her face in her hands.

"Given ten more minutes, she'd have shown you my baby pictures." Reina looked more or less how Kumiko would've imagined, having biked through several miles of snow and ice early in the morning, although any "powdered sugar" had since melted, leaving little droplets in her hair. She looked tired, mostly. "Why'd you come here, anyway? I mean, your house isn't really close by, you could've caught a cold or something."

"If I had asked you to meet me halfway, it would've ruined the surprise."

"What surprise?"

"The whole point of a surprise, or so I'm told, is that you don't know about it." Kumiko pulled on her bulky coat without another question, still clad in her pajamas.

"Let's go, then." Reina stood from the couch, shaking off any remaining droplets. "Mom! I'm heading out with Reina, I dunno where she's taking me but we'll be back in a few hours!"

"Stay safe!" Reina took Kumiko's mittened hand into her own.

"You'll like this, I think."

* * *

Twenty minutes passed, and all that Kumiko felt was _cold._

"H-how long until we get there, Reina?" she asked, puffs of air floating from her mouth as she shivered.

"It's just a little while away, I think." Reina didn't act fazed, but Kumiko could see the tips of her ears turning red, the way she wrapped her gray scarf so tightly around her neck that Kumiko was surprised she didn't choke. "I used to go here all the time when I was younger."

"Go where?" Reina pointed ahead, and Kumiko followed her finger to see the most perfect sledding hill she had ever laid eyes on.

"Holy crap," she breathed. Reina let out a small, triumphant hum.

"I figured you'd like it." Kumiko started walking towards the hill as if in a trance.

"W-wait, don't we need . . . y'know . . . a sled?"

"I've already figured that out." Reina dug through a nearby bush, tossing aside clumps of fluffy snow. "Here it is." She held up a battered plastic sled, its rope frayed with the bottom scratched. "The first one to the top gets the first ride down." Kumiko blinked, and before she could react, Reina raced up the hill, determined. Kumiko scrambled to catch up, but it seemed to be a lost battle as soon as the two hit the halfway point.

"Even dragging that sled, you're faster than me," she panted, flopping down onto the top of the hill. "I'll admit defeat."

"I suppose this is for the best, anyway," Reina said.

"Eh?"

"I'll be able to show you how it's done." Without another word, Reina hopped into the sled, flicking the rope as if it were the reins of a horse. Kumiko could only watch as Reina flew down the hill, her dark hair flowing behind her, each movement controlled and guided until the sled skidded to a halt. "It's your turn next!" she yelled from the bottom of the hill.

"Okay!" Kumiko yelled back. Reina dragged the sled back to the top, and Kumiko sat down in it as soon as Reina stopped.

"I haven't done this since I was a little kid," she murmured.

"We're both still kids, Reina," Kumiko said, tugging at the rope expectantly. Reina dusted some snow from her coat. "I mean, we d-don't have to let go of these things yet. We can still have fun. You looked really-" Kumiko's musings were interrupted by a rather powerful nudge from Reina, sending the sled bumping wildly down. "- _happy!_ You looked really happy, Reina!" Kumiko yanked on the rope, and she managed to stop the sled just in time before hitting a nearby tree.

"You're doing great!" Reina called from the top. Kumiko shook the snow that had piled up in the sled away, dragging it back up.

"I thought I was gonna die," she muttered.

"You'll get used to it. Besides, it's exhilarating, isn't it?" Reina closed her eyes, letting the frozen winds batter her cheeks.

"Hey, I used to go sledding too! The hill I went on got turned into some fancy building, though, so eventually I just . . . stopped."

"That's a shame."

"Yeah." Kumiko was silent for a moment. "I wonder how many more of these days we'll have."

"What, snow days? Not very many, if global warming is as big of a deal as the politicians and scientists have made it."

"Not just snow days, Reina." Kumiko laid down on her back, looking up at the snowflakes still drifting down. "Just . . . peaceful days, y'know? Happy times."

"You're being awfully pessimistic."

"I guess I am," she chuckled. "It's probably the snow. Winter's always a nostalgic time."

"Well, it won't do us much good to just lie down here and let the world go by." Reina stood up. "If you care about these peaceful days, you should take them and make the best of them." Kumiko looked up, and she thought that in that moment Reina really did look like a snow spirit, mysterious and powerful and so, so incredibly _beautiful._ "Take my hand."

"Uh, okay?" Reina sat down in the sled, and Kumiko squeezed in behind her. "Is this alright? I mean, I think this sled was meant for kids - one kid, at that, probably not two teenagers."

"It's like you said," Reina retorted, a half-grin slowly forming on her face. "We're still kids, which means we'll be fine."

"Could I, er, h-hold onto you?"

"I don't see why not." Kumiko wrapped her arms around Reina's waist, and suddenly the two were off, the sled tumbling down as Kumiko struggled to hold on.

 _It really does feel like flying,_ she thought, pressing her head into Reina's shoulder. She hardly had time to dwell on the thought, however, before the sled hit a tree root and both girls fell onto the snow.

Or, more specifically, Reina fell onto the snow, and Kumiko fell onto Reina.

"S-sorry!" she yelped, trying in vain to untangle herself from the sled's rope. Reina didn't seem bothered, however, and Kumiko briefly wondered if the cold weather was causing her to hallucinate, because Reina was _laughing,_ covered in snow and _laughing._ Kumiko snorted, and soon she found herself bursting out into laughter too.

"I told you that you'd like it," Reina said, her cheeks a rosy pink (though whether it was from the cold or from the position she was in, Kumiko had no idea) as she sat up. Kumiko wondered once again if she was hallucinating when Reina kissed her on the cheek before standing up and tossing the sled back into the bush. "For next year," she explained as Kumiko gingerly pressed a hand to her cheek where Reina's lips had been just seconds before. "We'll come back next year, won't we?"

"Y-yeah." The two girls walked back to Kumiko's house hand-in-hand, feeling so wonderfully warm even in the freezing weather. The sun had already started to slowly sink below the trees and buildings, casting a strange light on the snow.

"I didn't know it was this late." Reina looked up to the sky, slowly turning pink and orange.

"It's the winter, the sun's just starting to go down earlier. I forgot my watch, though, I dunno what time it really is."

"It's beautiful, in any case." It was. The lights sparkled on the snow, making it feel almost unreal, as if it were a portal to another world. Kumiko held Reina's hand tighter. It was like magic existed just in that spot, in that neighborhood, just for the two of them.

"H-hey, Reina?"

"Hmm?"

"You said that you wanted to come back next year . . . do you think we could maybe try to do something like camping out in the park? If it snows again, I mean."

"Something spontaneous," Reina murmured. "Something wild and ridiculous. I think I'd like that."

"Can we just stay like this for a minute, too?" Kumiko sat down, curling one arm around her knees as the other hand still held onto Reina's.

"I don't see why not." Kumiko nudged herself closer to Reina, and a sudden breeze sent the two of them staring into each others eyes, and Kumiko thought that perhaps the special days weren't quite as scarce as she thought.

* * *

 **a/n:** let's go on a vacation, just the two of us


End file.
